CANADIENS
Montreal

LIGHTNING
Tampa Bay

Lineup

Forward lines and defense pairings 

[one_half]Byron – Galchenyuk – Gallagher
Lehkonen – Plekanec – Radulov
Pacioretty – Desharnais – Shaw
Danault – Mitchell – Flynn[/one_half]

[one_half_last]Emelin – Weber
Markov – Petry
Beaulieu – Pateryn
[/one_half_last]

Goaltenders

Price
Montoya

Scratches

Daniel Carr, Mikhail Sergachev

Injured Reserve

Zach Redmond

Game Report

Prior to the start of the regular season, The Hockey News predicted that the Tampa Bay Lightning will sit atop of the Eastern conference next April. THN forecasts that the Canadiens will finish third. Suffice to say that the combatants at the Bell Centre on Thursday night are two very good teams who could be competing for the division and perhaps conference title.

So it’s not a surprise that this game was a tightly-contested affair with two quick-skating, tight-checking teams. It’s fair to say that the Lightning held a possession advantage but the Canadiens were better when it came to special teams.

And then there was the Price factor.

Carey Price not only makes big saves, he makes them at crucial moments in the game. Already up by one goal in the third period, the Lightning went to the power-play. Price made a game-changing save off the stick of Ondrej Palat. If the Lightning had gone up by 2-0 at that point in the game, we are probably talking about a different result.

And let’s not forget the offense, particularly in the third period. The Canadiens have owned the final frame this season outscoring their opponents by a 16-5 margin. On Thursday night, it was two goals plus an empty-netter in the third that completed the comeback.

Alex Galchenyuk scored the tying goal early in the final period but it was Andrei Markov with the perfect feed, a pass that only he can make. Max Pacioretty recorded the game-winner helped in no small part by Greg Pateryn and Andrew Shaw. For Shaw, the puck work and screen resembled more what we had been expecting from the versatile winger. To this point Shaw’s impact in the lineup has been considerably underwhelming.

The line blender was active once again to little effect. The two Canadiens centres were the least effective: Tomas Plekanec and David Desharnais. It was a rather blank scoresheet for Desharnais with the only item of note being his pitiful 29 per cent at the faceoff dot. That’s Galchenyuk territory.

With the blender on random mode, a combination was spit out that Canadiens fans have been clamoring for all season. Alex Radulov lined up on the left side of Galchenyuk with Brendan Gallagher on the right wing. While Radulov isn’t terribly fond of playing on the left side, the trio connected on the power-play for the Canadiens first goal. After that they played 5-on-5 shifts together.

The Habs will face many challenges as they go through this long 82-game schedule. Facing the Tampa Bay Lightning was the first big test. And it has to be a rather large confidence-booster to notch the ‘W’.

The Canadiens will have the day off on Friday. They will convene again at the Bell Centre on Saturday for a date against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

~~~

▲     Carey Price, Alex Galchenyuk, Brendan Gallagher

▼     David Desharnais, Brian Flynn, Nathan Beaulieu

1. Carey Price  MTL
2. Max Pacioretty  MTL
3. Jonathan Drouin  TBL

• “We’ve been concentrating on the power play pretty much lately since the beginning of the year. I could feel that it started clicking.”

Carey Price

• On Radulov playing with Galchenyuk: “They got a lot of skill. Their playmaking ability speaks for itself.”
• On the save against Palat (that was likely a game-changer): “I got really lucky there.”

Max Pacioretty

• “We’ve played a lot of hockey, but we haven’t really relied on too many individuals to take over. So, I think when we have everyone rolling like this and we have everyone in the game and making a difference, it makes it easier to play back to back and a lot of games at once. It’s been great.”

Lightning coach Jon Cooper

• “It was a pretty even game… It came down to special teams and they got the better of us.”
• On Galchenyk’s goal: “That’s a sick play he’s gotta make. That’s on and off the stick. Not a lot of guys can do that.”
• “Look at the goals that went in. They weren’t gifts. They got the extra bounce and we didn’t.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com